


Confessor in the Flood

by aderyn



Series: Natural Facts [21]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, coffee & crime & absolution, post-The Adventure of the Empty House
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-24
Updated: 2012-04-24
Packaged: 2017-11-04 05:56:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/390515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aderyn/pseuds/aderyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Sherlock has been back a month: all of the truces are still a-tremble."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confessor in the Flood

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired by Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.

 

Sally Donovan is the last person John expects to see on their doorstep on a Sunday morning, and yet here she is, shifting her weight side to side and twisting a lock with one braceletted hand.

She’s got an envelope that looks like it holds photos. Her coat is open to the drizzle, and there’s truce in her eyes. Sherlock has been back a month: all of the truces are still a-tremble.

“Sally,” John says.  And to his surprise he stands aside and invites her across the threshold.

“John,” she says, and it’s surprising. How often has she used his name? He doesn’t remember.

“He in?” she says.

***

He sees what she’s doing, with Sherlock, with the photos, when Sherlock comes out sleepy, wary, warm in some kind of collarless shirt, and John wants to jump between them, but he doesn’t; he lets them lean in, Sherlock disarmed by the images on the table: a holy man waist deep in a river (where?), the baptized in the flood, the bodies washed up on the banks. ( _Where?_ )

“No survivors,” Sally says. Sherlock nods.

John wants to slide between them, sharp as a razor, but he doesn’t. He sets their coffee down. He’s not a praying man.  But he watches them, for a moment, leaning in, their hair briefly knitted, their heads bowed.

**Author's Note:**

> [ Fox Confessor Brings the Flood ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihONUt99utg)
> 
> [ Star Witness](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi6keFpm-BY)
> 
> Part of something that should be longer that I don't have in me right now. ( :
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  


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